>> alisyn: slightly different skill set. but by the seat of your pants excitement. >> brian: thank you for watching us. every moment you can not miss. >> steve: we do know that three of us will be back tomorrow on tuesday and we hope to see you then. >> brian: bye, everybody. bill: all right, thank you guys. good morning, everybody! first up today, breaking news out of japan, a possible setback at the nuclear plant, and we have new images of smoke rising from at least one, maybe two, of the six reactors. those brave japanese workers, now being evacuated yet again, efforts to cool the overheating reactor are on hold. the crisis to preventing possible meltdown not over just yet. we'll have the latest from japan in a matter of moments here. in the meantime, another fox news alert, allied forces striking libya again.

this is overnight videotape from the u.s. navy, a u.s. coalition launching two nights of punishing air attacks targeting mommar gadhafi's forces, b52 bombers, jet fighters, more than 120 tom hawk cruise missiles, scattering progovernment forces on the ground in libya, the long time leader vowing a long war ahead. good morning, everybody. we've got it all covered for you. what a way to start a weefnlgt i'm bill hemmer, welcome to "america's newsroom". good morning to you martha. martha: good morning, bill. i am martha maccallum. an international air assault, all but crippling libya's air defenses, that according to the u.s. military. listen to this: >> there has been no new air activity by the regime and we have de tented no radar emissions from the defense sites targeted and there has been a significant decrease in the use of all libyan air surveillance radar which is most of those appear to be limited now only to the areas around tripoli and surt.

we are not ruling out strikes against valid targets when and if the need arises. martha: there you have it, u.s., british and french planes blasting a line of progadhafi tanks on the ground and this is -- this is what is left of the compound, part of it, anyway, a pile of concrete, unbelievable images that we are getting in of that, the libyan leader's whereabouts at this point unknown. bill: martha, we're trying to piece this together and trying to figure out over the last 24 hours what the allied forces have done. on the map behind us, here is where the no fly zone is in pect, everything north of the red line marked off in yellow, the capitol city of trippe, we know tom hawk missiles went into tripoli yet again in all likelihood targeting the headquarters, a four story building that apparently was leveled. also in the town of misurata , it's said to go

storing 10,000-gallons of mustard gas, also the town of sirte, you heard that mentioned from the pentagon a moment ago, gadhafi's home town, that too the target of missile strikes overnight. as for the air strikes, this would have been perhaps an f16 bomber, perhaps a fighter jet on behalf of the u.s., british, french, we know benghazi was hit overnight in an air strike there, targeting the forces loyal to mommar gadhafi. also south, there's a main road that runs up north into benghazi, that apparently was the target of fighter jets again overnight and one of the location, the town of sirte, also hit not just with tomahawk missiles but also with the air strikes from the air. no troops on the ground but reporters are and steve harrigan is one of them, live from tripoli. what is the latest on gadhafi, what do we know, steve? >> reporter: bill, as far as colonel gadhafi goes, he

hasn't been seen in front of the television cameras for three days, he's been making reports by telephone and those tape-recordings are played on television. it's one of defiance, he says this is going to be a long war, his latest taunt is the u.s. has -- the west has lost in afghanistan, they have lost to bin laden and will lose in libya as well. part of the command and control center, 1 mile from where i'm standing, was targeted overnight, that 4-story building demolished. over the past two nights, when it gets dark in tripoli, the explosions start, we've heard heavy incoming fire, loud explosion and heavy outgoing fire, that antiaircraft fire really filling the skies. these are mobile ant aircraft units, most of the systems here in libya have already been taken out but the smaller mobile units still in activity and this is a real urban battle ground. you get the sense that this is a capitol city, a city still very much alive with a lot of traffic on the streets, yet at the same time, heavy gunfire coming

in and coming out each night, so far, from this city, bill. bill: steve, there's a bit of a delay on the satellite signal but the followup is this: are the air strikes now tipping the balance in fighting, or can we say that only 48 hours in? >> reporter: i think there's been a remarkable turnaround in the military position of the rebels, just three days ago, they were pretty much near extinction, holed up in one city, their numbers dwindling, now sud beenly, especially with the help of air power they are regrouping and beginning to advance on benghazi, the strong hold. the question is will the air power continue to escort them in the march west, if it does, there's nothing in their way, 600 miles to tripoli. bill: steve harrigan, thank you, on the ground there in the libyan capitol. we will be in contact with you throughout the morning for the latest developments in libya, thank you. martha has more. martha: gadhafi's long association with terrorism, of course, a big concern for the united states right now. our intelligence agency is

reportedly watching for signs that libya's leader will resort to acts of terrorism against the west. gadhafi apparently has an extensive stockpile that bill just mentioned to you in that misratie -- misurata region, and forces to use potentially against his own people as well. u.s. officials say they have not seen any intelience that gadhafi is reestablishing the terror ties but they warn, quote, a madman is a madman. bill: it's not the first time the u.s. has taken action against libya. it might have to go back 25 years ago, april 14th, 1986, president reagan, authorizing air strike necessary libya, within the span of an hour, u.s. air force and navy jets unleashing military targets in tripoli and benghazi on gadhafi's headquarters in tripoli, the response of a libyan sponsorship of terrorism against american marines in berlin. the bombing of the west

berlin discotek frequented by u.s. troops, one serviceman killed there. at the time, president reagan made a statement saying when our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in the world, we will respond in self-defense, end quote. he also said if necessary, the u.s. would act again, that was 1986, martha. martha: all right. so the fighting in libya, pushing oil futures up this morning. as you might imagine. oil jumping to more than $103 a barrel. it was just under $85 when the libyan protests began. that is a huge prime, in a -- climb in a very short amount of time, so that means that prices at the pump are getting pushed higher as well. stuart varney says your oil may be pushing up, but the futures will do just fine. how do you figure that, stewart? >> surprise, surprise. with the turmoil in the middle east, touch and go on the nuke, price of oil going up, missiles into libya, you would think your 401(k) would take a hit when the

markets open up this morning. martha, that's wrong. that is not the case. big name stocks, whether they're industrial or technological, doesn't matter, they're going to go up. when that bell rings in about, what, 23 minutes' time. here's why. there is a huge merger that's being announced, an attempted merger, at&t wants to buy t-mobile for $39 billion. arguably, this is the biggest and most important industry in the technology arena right now, that is data transmission on mobile phone networks. it's a big merger. and the theory is look, if t-mobile is so cheap, maybe other companies are cheap. that wets the juices on wall street. so the stock is market is going to go up, martha, 22 minutes from now. surprise, surprise, the market goes up, despise what's happening in the news! martha: at least in early going, futures are higher as stuart is pointing out, 11858 is where we closed on that. i guess higher oil prices are something this market is going to have to live with, stuart. >> there's a backyownd theory.

there's speculating if we're targeting gadhafi himself and targeting the missiles maybe the oil flow will start up soon from libya. even though the price is up this morning, maybe, just maybe, fairly soon, the oil will start flowing again and the price will come down. that's all speculation, of course. but that's why the market is going to go up at least 100 points on the dow, 23 minutes from now. martha: we'll talk to you when it opens up, stuart varney, on vashy -- varney & company, thank you very much. bill: so much to watch now. as we move forward through this story, the u.s. is in the lead and they've said over the weekend that we were going to get ready to hand this off to nato partners, that be you, the british and french. those tom hawk missiles that apparently hit gadhafi's compound were from britain and jennifer griffin was reporting on that live from the pentagon last night. so that's confirmed, that there still is heavy involvement on behalf of the brits. jennifer griffin is coming up in 50 minutes from the pentagon. in the meantime the military is on the move, u.s., france, britain launching

these strikes, gadhafi vowing to hold on to power. can he? will he? and if so, what then? karl rove on whether or not we just took a huge military risk. martha: and a deluge of rain, knocking out power and prompting flash flood warnings. where this rare spring storm is causing some serious chaos. and there's this: -- >> bill: this started with a phone call to police that ended with a murder of an officer. a deadly standoff, in moments.

martha: let's get you caught up on a couple of top stories in "america's newsroom". energy regulators, in a big meeting right now in washington dks, getting an update on japan's stricken reactors and getting news, a very serious report here at home for u.s.' new -- u.s.'

nuclear safety. >> and hawaii, shooting lava 55 feet in the air, scientists say a serious eruption could be on the way. so we add that to the mix of what's going on around the world. back to you bill. bill: okay martha. fourteen minutes past the hour, we know the military action in libya has been named operation honesty. what we do not have a handle on is who is commanding the operation, what the military goal is, and who's determining that. there's an editorial in the "wall street journal" pointing out the serious risks what's called a war by a global committee. john bolton is my guest, former ambassador to the u.n., good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: is this the right decision? >> it's the right decision to use force. not yet for the right objective and with a very confused command structure. i think that removing gadhafi is in america's national interest. i certainly feel for the civilians in libya, but our

main objective should be ensuring that gadhafi is removed from power so that he does not return to international terrorism and does not return to ins new -- his nuclear weapons program. president obama hasn't apparently figured that out yet but perhaps he might come to that conclusion. bill: we were told over the past two weeks that gadhafi was on the verge of slaughtering his own people. especially in the town of benghazi. now, does he have a record of killing his own people or does he simply have a record of going off the fighters in which he was engaged in a civil war? >> look, he was engaged in a civil war. he was an eccentric dictator, there's nothing good you can say about him but america doesn't have an interest in interferen in every -- interfering in every civil war around the world. gadhafi is a different case because of his support for terrorism in the past, his chemical and nuclear weapons

programs, he does constitute a threat to us and our friends and aleyes. that's why it was right to use force. frankly, we should have done this a month ago when a prompt intervention could have tipped the balance. this thing could have been over by now. bill: i des it was guest of 2003, he was ready to give up wmds, and we were sent to libya to make sure that happened. >> and i participated in and knowing everything we know now i would do it again. imagine how bad it would be if he had nuclear weapons today. that was never intended as a get out of jail card for colonel gadhafi. i think when he began to engage in the kind of activity we've seen over the past month there was little doubt once the president said he had to be removed that we had to be prepared to back those words up with actions. bill: we are told the responsibilities on behalf of the u.s. military will be handed over in short order, perhaps within a couple of days is what some people say or lead us to believe. are the french, are the

brits, are the italians, ready to finish this war? >> well, with all due respect to all of our good friends and close nato allies, the answer to that is no and it's a big mistake for the obama administration even to be thinking about this. it seems to be based on the idea that if the u.s. isn't in the lead role, the arab world, the broader muslim world, won't hold it against us. i think that's ridiculous. i think the arab world, the muslim world, see exactly what we see. this is predominantly a u.s. operation, it should be predominantly a u.s. operation, and we should give credit to people for being able to understand exactly what is going on. bill: but what -- >> patron -- it's patronizing and demeaning for the president to do this. bill: what is confounding is the arab league backed us a week ago, now the head of the arab league has reservations in the past 24 hours, suggesting the military actions already taken place have gone too far. how do you -- how do you figure that out? >> that's par for the course and the obama administration

was wrong to base its decision to use force, in part anyway on the arab league announcing it was in favor of the use of force. if we had just done what we should have done months ago, the arab league would have glummably dollars in public and in private would have said you're doing the right thing. the only difference now is that they're grumbling in applicable. bill: but even then, who takes over if gadhafi is out? >> well, i think this is a rare situation, perhaps a unique situation, where whatever the new government turns out to be, it's not going to be as bad as gadhafi. there are a few situations you can say that. i think there's a real risk here. i'm not looking for a jeffersonian democracy to spring up. i'll be happy with a regime that's simply sullenly antiamerican. bill: until then, we await. mr. ambassador, thank you. we will be in contact throughout the week. thank you very much. john bolton. >> thank you very much. martha: fascinating constitute. back here at home, a dramatic rescue during a very tense standoff.

the s.w.a.t. team, pulling a woman out of a home. you'll see them putting her into the back of this van. there she is. and how this ended is a whole other story. bill: also, so many communities facing a flood threat now. two major rivers rushing over their banks and this morning there is more rain and believe it or not, more snow pouring down today today. >> it's terrible. you can't really see anything. and you know, people are driving like crazy. >> it's bad. they move all over the road.

bill: i want to show you this swat scene in wisconsin, one police officer dead, another wounded after a suspect in a sexual assault opened fire early sunday morning. watch how this plays out:

>> [gunfire] >> bill: this would be a woman taken under cover out of that house and put in the back of this swat car van, the shooting kicking off a six hour standoff at a home. the s.w.a.t. team members at least one hostage from the home, the suspect later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gun shot but not before killing officer gregg craig berkholz, 28, he was only with the force two years after serving in afghanistan and in iraq. we remember him today. martha: there is a major storm pounding southern california this morning, heavy rains causing major flooding around the los angeles area and triggering mudslides in places scorched bare by the recent wildfires. the mud, forcing about 30 people from their homes in woodland hills. the fire official says the area must be checked out

before those residents can return. >> we are awaiting for the geologist to come out and assess. we're hoping the rain dies down, that will result in hopefully the mud to stop flowing. martha: hopefully is right. maria molina is live in the fox weather center. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, martha. crazy storm system rolling through this weekend and we started off friday with a confirmed tornado, ripping through santa rosa, and throughout the weekend, same storm system, just continuing to bring wind, snow, and also some very heavy rain. we actually did produce record rain on sunday in santa barbara, california with more than 5 inches of rain coming in, parts of i5 and i80 closed overnight last night and still closed down this morning, due to heavy snow, and in lucerne valley, california, we had a wind gust of 110 miles per hour. so just incredible stuff over the weekend, and it's not over just yet. we do also want to show you images out of southern

california where we had flooding, the cars just basically at door-level water, and this is the scene across much of southern california, one of the hardest hit areas, also, santa barbara, and we also did have reports of some local trees and rivers overflowing their banks and other images of damage also coming out of southern parts of california because of the thunderstorms that rolled through. and like we said, this is not over wet. we do have more moisture coming ashore. this storm system is going to continue to sit here and as energy transfers up to the upper midwest as we head into tomorrow we're going to see improvement out there but we're not going to be done just yet. this storm is going to head up into the upper midwest and a new one, martha, will be hitting california as we head into wednesday, so just starting off spring on a wild note out west. martha: to add insult to injury, maria. thank you very much. bill: you have 70 degrees in the northeast, right!

martha: we wanted spring. bill: we also get slapped back down like we have now. we're going to get back to japan, there's breaking news out of tokyo. there's breaking news. this -- in the meantime, harsh words for president obama on the action ordered on libya, strong crit -- criticism from the left, from islam, and filmmaker michael moore. what they are saying now. martha: we'll talk to a panel about that. the libyan government calling for another ceasefire as bombs and missiles rain down in libya. military reaction to that and the strategy as we move forward. >> i question anything out of gadhafi, that he called for. he called for a ceasefire and told his troops to move called for a ceasefire.

bill: 9:30 here in new york on a monday morning. good morning, everybody. back back to our top stories, these are tomahawk cruisemisms, at least 120, raining down on libya in the past 24-48 hours, this video courtesy of the u.s. navy, gadhafi's air defense, its compound, said to be left in ruins, according to u.s. military officials. overnight at least two tomahawk missiles launched by the british were sent into the compound. we'll make out what we can on this compound here in tripoli, the capitol city. here's the main road that runs to the east, another rain road that runs off to the northwest, and what appears on this map here, all the green in the middle,

would the -- would be the enormous compound that gadhafi has called home and has also taken refuge in over time. there is a 4-story building, as i mentioned, on that property that apparently has been leveled. i want to bring in lieutenant tom mcinerny who knows libya all too well. good morning to you, fox news military analyst. it's good to have you. you believe that we have opened up a can of worms. why? >> yes, i do. first of all let me say, bill, we are in a superb position militarily. we have the best equipment in those latest cruise missiles, tom hawks, we have the b -- tomahawks, we have the b2 with the tremendous capability, we have global hawk which can give us a minute by minute assessment, whether the weather is good or bad, the globe at hawk is tremendous for analyzing what's going on. but here's my problem. we've been snookered. we've seen this movie before. there is no question of our

military capability to take this down. the question is, once you break the pottery, what do you do to rebuild it? and ambassador john bolton and i seldom disagree, but the fact is i don't like gadhafi, either. but we knew where we stood with him, he was a fervent antiislammist, he did not like al-qaeda, he was their enemy, and now, we're going to be stuck with this. we do not know who is going to control it. right now, general carter hand controls it but who do we handle it -- hand it over to, the french, the british? they couldn't handle it a week. they couldn't put out a daily task order. they don't have the capabilities. nato is not going to touch it. you can tell that the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and all the chiefs, two weeks og, it was very clear, they did not want any involvement with this. so i think the french, president sar zosy, has

snookeld hillary who snookered the president and that's not good. bill: wow. that's no go to go about determining military activity, whether you call it a war or not. but you supported the action in iraq, you supported the action in afghanistan. what's so different here, general? >> well, i think the difference is, in iraq, right or wrong, we felt he had, number one, of mass destruction and number two, he had violated 16 u.n. resolutions. and so that was the reason for the concern and why i supported it. in afghanistan, clearly, 9/11 is where it was launched from, planned from. so # years ago, we did operation iraqi freedom, we're still there, many, many billions of dollars, we're still in afghanistan, coming up on ten years. now, what i'm concerned with is we're commit those two theatres of war. there was no national emergency, as far as the

united states was concerned, on the civil war going on in libya. and that's why there's a difference. there was no impact. there was a humanitarian, maybe. i never heard a number on how many people were killed. in one week in iraq, during the anbar uprising, we probably killed more people than gadhafi killed. so i just don't see the national emergency for the united states. our interests were not involved there. and that's what concerns me. bill: this is where the debate continues. general, appreciate your time, thank you very much, tom mcinerney out of washington. i mentioned the tomahawk cruise missiles. we can tell you what happened so far. at least 120 have been launched from various bases and various areas, not just throughout the mediterranean but also europe, two from britain were launched and those two took out gadhafi's compound, that 4-story building i mentioned before we introduced the general. the tomahawk cruise missile on the screen behind me

launched from u.s. navy royal, neab subs on behalf of britain, they fly at extremely low altitudes but they're tough to defense against, tough to take down. tomahawk cruise missiles have used in all theatres throughout the world, 20 feet in length, weighs 3000 pounds, has a range of at least 100 miles. the cost is expensive, $1.5 million per, first used during operation desert storm back in early 1991. also, the tomahawk cruise missile has been very effective, not just in libya, but also in other theaters that i mentioned throughout the world, and that has been the number one weapon used to date before the f15s and the f16s have now engaged in that battle. here's martha now with more. martha: thank you bill. well, there has been loud criticism from the far left coming in about the president's libyan move. the nation of islam leader lewis fehr can blasting president obama on a chicago radio show, and this is the phot from lewis farr can,

why don't you organize a group of respected americans and ask for a meeting for gadhafi. you can't order him to step down and get out. who the hell do you think you are. from that luis farr can. and filmmaker michael moore sending out this tweet dripping can sarcasm, we also follow the french, next thing you know we'll have free health care and free college. yeah, war! that coming from michael moore. andrea tantoras joins us, fox news contributor, christopher haas, former strategist and aide for senator chuck schumer. there are so many levels to look at this situation on and for the moment with the two of you we want to look at it politically. it appears from these couple of quotes that the president may have alienated some on the far left with this move. how do you think this plays for him overall politically? christopher. >> well, you know, i think that when you talk about a complex issue like sending our forces into war, there

are always going to be people on both the left and right who question what you do. but i think what the president has done is very sensible. i don't think we need to take the lead here. i just heard the general on before saying this was a french action. of course the french had to be involved here. it's their money that is funding gadhafi right now. it's the british and the french who have basically traded with him. we haven't. so i think that there's a lot of concern on the left and i think you'll continue to hear more of it, but i'm a little more concerned about the rhetoric i'm hearing from the right. either the president was too slow to act or we're not acting enough or we're not taking a big enough role. i want to know how the people on the right are going to pay for it, because quite frankly, it costs a billion dollars a day to do this, and to cut npr, that gets you through lunch which is basically their only way for solving our financial problems. martha: you raise two good points christopher. we're going to get to the money in a second. first and remarks what about the charge that conservatives, some of whom were out there saying the president wasn't decisive on

this issue, that he was, you know, from traveling in brazil, he wasn't taking this seriously enough, what about that charge? can you turn around now and say this is an overreach? >> well, i would be very careful to generalize that those on the right are the ones urging this president to get into this war somehow. look, i think the left and the right are actually going to find a lot of common ground here. they both look at president obama, who wants to make defense cuts, and they say why are you doing this now? i mean, look, we've heard all the analysts on this morning, the time to act would have been two weeks ago, you do not commit to proceed, with the united states calling for gadhafi's removal as president obama did and then do wrog. martha: but endoo they put together this group, with france, with the u.k., that, you know, that that took time, they didn't want the u.s. to be out in the lead on this given our situation in iraq and after. is that, you know -- i mean, is that thinking out of line in your opinion? >> but the french do not have the money and the will

power to stay there. if we go in, if we get involved in this coalition, we own it. this is a fourth world country, you heard the general say it, we do not have u.s. interests there. there are tribes that hate us and when we get involved, we own it. we're going to pay for it. and we should stop the nation building. this is coming from conservatives and other conservatives are saying the same thing and it's a broader point, martha, what is the discernible policy of this administration in the middle east. martha: this question needs to be answered, christopher. go ahead. >> two weeks ago, the arab league hadn't acted, the u.n. hadn't acted, there hadn't been a coalition put together. i know that the bush doctrine is to saddle up, go in and try to get help later, but i think the responsible course is to wait and build support around the world before we act alone. we are not going to pay, shoulder the burden of another war in this country. we can't do it. martha: both points are well taken. let's take a look at how much of the cost of this. we've talked so much before this started blowing up literally about the financial situation here at home, and this is -- and

this is something that needs to be taken into consideration, that is a $9 billion number, that's over 180 days, it costs $350 million a week to impose this no fly zone, and 6.5 times larger than the iraq no fly zone and with it comes a larger cost. a quick thought from crest fer and andrea on the cost of this. go ahead, christopher. >> like i said, all these guys in k. all these people on the right, the john mccains, the boehners, that are saying we need to do more, quicker, sooner, i want to know how they're going to pay for it. are they willing to raise taxes to pay for another war? i don't think they are. >> chris, get off the points. honestly, this president and democrats failed to pass a budget. how can this president get involved in a coalition when we don't know what our finances are at home? he dropped the ball last year and he's dropping it now. >> which is it, rieght wing, not be involved or are we involved too much? the talking point is that he -- >> martha: this is a debate

we're going to be talking about for days to come, i expect. andrea -- thank you both. bill: the markets are flying, ten minutes of trading, up 167 points. there's a major corporate deal between at&t and t-mobile in the u.s., that's worth, what, $40 billion i think is the price tag, the company closing up 80 points on friday. we're off and running for the bulls on wall street. martha: there's one funny thing to put into the mix here. we've got a report coming up, to explain why the dow is coming up. that's minutes from now. a south carolina community grieving after a deadly accident on a mini train. what caused this and the details coming up. bill: launching strikes in libya, my next guest says the president does not have the constitutional authority to make that decision and he's steaming mad about it, ohio congressman dennis kucinich is live on the hill. we'll talk to him in three minutes.

martha: terror in a popular mexican resort town. a search is underway for suspects in a deadly shooting in ak poke --o acapulco, gunmen killing ten people. a horrific scene there. according to police the suspect ran after opening fire. this is the latest involving several shootups. so far, no word on a possible motive beyond that. backback-- bill: back to lib yarks here's what house speaker john boehner said, quote, before any military commitments are made the administration must do a better job of communicating to the american people and congress about our mission in libya and how it will be achieved. my next guest calls the assault grave and lacks constitutional authority. dennis kucinich is the democratic congressman from ohio and sir, welcome back to "america's newsroom". what's the problem of going after gadhafi. >> here it is and i'm going to read this and tell you

who said it, the president does not have power under to -- under the constitution to unilateral -- uni lat israelly authorize attack that does not involve stopping an imminent threat to the nation. that was barack obama that said that on december 20th, 2007. we have got to be very sure that we follow the constitution, and president obama didn't do that. bill: well, even if congress came back and voted on it, would it pass? >> it's after the fact now. i mean, there's a serious matter here that relates to the president going ahead, ordering a strike against libya and not involving the congress, and your guest talked about the cost, we're probably into this for half a billion dollars already, then you think about theo there's no threat, there's no end game, they still have the regime change, we could be strengthening islamic extremists who could be setting up in eastern libya. the people want to divide

that nation. this is a nightmare. bill you know, if the bloodshed did happen, let's say the massacre that some predicted did take place, the united states would have significant blood on its hands. is that justififiable enough for new. >> when you talk about blood on our hands, there's blood being shed all over the world and we can't control it. we cannot be the policemen of the world, as tragic as these situations are across the world, the united states cannot afford nor do we have the authority to go in and intervene. now, you look at bahrain and yemen, excuse me, i mean, there's things happening there that somebody who wanted to talk about a humanitarian war, to try to use that principle, could intervene, but no, in this case, though, the president had to go back to congress. we didn't -- he didn't do that. he went ahead anyway without having a vote. bill: you know the history of mommar gadhafi and you know what a threat he has posed to the united states in the past, and we are told that had we not acted now a massacre would take place in

benghazi. >> i mean, that's horrible. but there's no actual imminent threat to the united states. he should have come to congress. if this is so grave, congress was still in session, the president could have said wait, don't go home, i've got to talk to you about what's happening here. i may need your approval. this is about the constitution. and if we don't abide by our constitution, everything falls apart here. this is about constitution. it's not about whether you like president obama or not. i like president obama. but i love the constitution. bill: the other thing that's going on now is all that matters in our own country, cutting the decifit and the debates thaw and i have had on this program for months for not years ongoing. >> that is certainly something that's going to be discussed by members of congress. look, if we don't have enough money to have home heating in parts of our nation, if we don't have enough money for education and health programs or for creating jobs, how is it we have endless amounts of money for war? i mean, i've raised this question over and over and will continue to do so but i want to make it very clear

that my objections about this start right with the constitution, under article i, section eight, only congress has the power to take this nation into war, unless there's an actual or imminent threat to the united states in which the president doesn't have time to consult with congress. bill: you know what i find fascinating, listen to the debates over the weekend, the debates we've had in the last 48 minutes, whether it's folks on the right or left, they're all over the board now with those who either support this action or disagree with it, and this is part of the national conversation that goes through our blood stream starting now and dennis kucinich, thank you for your time in washington. to our viewers, go to our website, foxnews.com/ "america's newsroom". there's a bya box scwhrien, you can leave a question about what's happening in libya, or shoot me an e-mail, hemmer, fox news.om, also twitter me, bill hemmer. we're on this story every day this week, going forward, until who knows when. because you asked, bya, online. martha: a lot of passionate

opinions on this, as you can see in "america's newsroom". so libya's leader, vowing a long war, on the heels of a coalition attack against forces on the ground. karl rove will weigh in on these strikes over the weekend, and whether or not we just took a huge military risk. bill: also, a major deal. we'll talk about a corporate merger that might make a better connection. 

bill: so seven people, recovering in a hospital after a deadly amusement park accident, south carolina, this happened. a miniature train going off the tracks in smart anberg, that wreck killed a six-year-old boy and injured more than a dozen people. a train that had operated safely for 50 years, we're told. also it had just passed inspection by the state department of labor, only two days before that tragedy on the tracks. martha: terrible.

all right. let's go over for a minute to see what's going on in the markets this morning. they are moving higher. the potential merger for a cell phone industry, at&t and t-mobile are the two in this deal, and the market is up 200, over the 12,000 mark for the dow 30, the fox business' jovana is with us from the newsroom. what's going on in downtown manhattan? >> investors love it when corporate america starts to spend money and do deals. this is the biggest m & a deal announced since 2008 and a big one at that, $39 billion to create the biggest wireless network in the country, at&t announcing it will buy t-mobile overnight, but of course, every day americans like us out there want to know what's in it for me, and at&t saying there's plenty in it for you. it's just going to take a little bit of time. first off, is this going to improve the cell network for at&t and t-mobile customers. you know there are stories of dropped calls in san francisco and new york, they have been legendary and at&t

says it will see an increase in the number of cell sites in major markets by 25-45 percent. keep in mind, however, it's not going to happen until after the deal closes. it's going to take a year for the deal to close so all the positive benefits aren't going to come from 1-2 years. the big question is are the cell phone bills going to go down and this deal effectively creates a duopoly, verizon and at&t in the warkt place, no real incentive to lower prices, but we're going to get a g network later this year so short term benefits and gains but the longer term picture is a positive one, if the deal gets dufnlt that's a big question. martha: if the deal gets done. we'll see how the regulators like this one. thank you very much. bill: so if there is a better connection, we can't use the excuse anymore, honey, i was telling you -- where did you go? >> martha: sorry, just lost ya! bill: another scary matter in japan's nuclear plant,

smoke seen riseing from one, at least two of the six reactors, workers evacuated, what's being done to prevent another disaster or a further disaster. we're live in a moment. martha: clearly the biggest story, the u.s. jointing nato in an assault on libya. have they crippled gadhafi's defenses? and what will happen next? [ bob ] i'd love to build bird houses for the rest of my life. so i've got to take care of my heart. for me cheerios is a good place to start. [ male anuncer ] to keep doing what you love, take re of your heart with cheerios. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. love your heart so yo can do what you love. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to he of mutual funds, iras, or annuities.

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>> they say they haven't seen noticeable spike in radiation levels since they saw the smoke. now, pressure has been

fluctuating, dangerously, over the last 24 hours, and, at one of those reactors, the number 3, and, they have been considering venting radioactive steam into the atmosphere, because they feared another explosion, similar to the ones we saw over a week ago now at the plant. it will be controversial, though, if they did do that, because the reactor is partly fueled by plutonium, and is vented, it is could be much more dangerous in terms of a radiation release. the owners of tokyo electric backed off from that, but, there is concerns, of course, because the smoke coming from the number 3 reactor, the operator of the plant has said now that two of the 6 reactors have been -- have managed to cool them down and have also got power back to two other reactors but is not clear if they can get the water pumps working but one of those two reactors is the number 2, the smoke coming from it now.

so that could change the whole equation now, of what is going up from the plant, at the same time there is massive concerns, here, in japan, about radiation levels, and we understand that here in tokyo where it is range, it has been radiation reported -- there has been radiation reported in the water come down here on the japanese capital, back to you guys. >> david piper, thank you so much. for the update. we'll get more on that, coming up. bill: in the meantime, we forget about the tsunami and the earthquake and, the damage -- >> rescue efforts underway. bill: stretches for hundreds of miles and the japanese not giving up hope and the search for survivors centers day 11 and rescue teams combing through mountains of rubble spread across hundreds of miles and yesterday a woman and her grandson were pulled from wreckage and are alive. more than a week after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, one disaster response in south africa, saying debris is piled so high it takes hours to get to the bottom of each

pile. imagine. martha: we are hearing dramatic stories from americans who were in japan, when the quake and tsunami hit hit. mickey mellow is a student and was spending the semester studying in japan and his university was worried about the nuclear crisis and he was sent home to the united states. listen to this: >> after the big quake was over it still sort of felt like things we're still moving when they weren't. like, after you have been on a ship for like, a little bit, when you get off the ship it still feels like you are on the ship, that is the sort of feeling it was like, sad for what happened, of course, to the japanese people and i want to be there to see them recover and see how things go. yeah. i'm just disappointed i had to leave when i did. martha: check out the interactive map on our web site, click on foxnews.com/world/earthquake. you can keep track of what is going on with the fukushima plant and we'll update you on that as well, and there are pictures of it, to break it down in terms of the devastation and

the ongoing search for more of these victims as they continue to find people, for that work. bill: they do. hope springs eternal there in japan. at least for those... 250,000 people in shelters? it is staggering. and it continues now for all most a second week. okay, "fox news alert," now, new information, the front lines of libya as u.s., french and british fighter planes blast qaddafi's military. a top u.s. official now saying two british missiles have struck qaddafi's compound. because of its military significance, not to target qaddafi personally, they say. the libyan government spokesman calling the hit a bad move. >> this is at the administrative building where people were working and it was hit two hours ago. and, as you know, of course, as you have seen, yourselves, with your cameras, people are, civilians, families, children, men and women, have come from everywhere, to stay day and

night to protect this location. to protect this location. and the rocket hit only 50 to 100 meters away from them. bill: here's a map that gives you the idea of airstrikes, the number over the past, say, 24 hours, the military saying more than 124 so far, tomahawk missile strikes and the no-fly zone is marked in yellow on that map, we have team coverage, rick levin that you mean is in libya and jennifer griffin is live at the pentagon. first to rick on the ground, streaming live in benghazi. rick? >> reporter: and, bill, benghazi is very quiet today. much different scene than saturday morning when qaddafi's tanks were firing shells and landed within 200 yards of our position and we watched a rebel fighter jet getting shot down out of the sky, because of that, a lot of people evacuated the city and when we went into town this morning, we saw very quiet streets, and, not nearly as many check points, and the courthouse was virtually empty, and, we did

hear, though, from a spokesperson for opposition forces, who said that they are, obviously, still fighting, that they are welcoming the nato airstrikes from above and do not want boots on the ground and their goal, he says, is to march on tripoli and we also visited a hospital in benghazi, today, where we saw a number of wounded fighters, in the intensive care unit and a doctor there told us at least 95 people were killed in the fighting in benghazi over the weekend and hundreds more were wounded including that the least two women and a child and folks here feel emboldened by the nato enforcement of the no-fly zone in part because of what we saw ten miles south of benghazi on saturday afternoon. fighter jets struck qaddafi tanks and other heavy armor that gathered in a field there, alongside the highway. they destroyed all of those armored vehicles, bill, and we saw hundreds of people, perhaps, 1500 or more, celebrating there, taking photos, and waving flags and firing their weapons into

the air. they believe democracy is in their sights. bill: in benghazi, libya's second largest city and the battle continues there. martha: military commanders for the u.s. and britain insist that muammar qaddafi himself is not being targeted in this attack and the u.k. said if british missiles hit his compound it is because it is seen as a, quote, military target. jennifer griffin on top of this, throughout the weekend and has more this morning from the pentagon, good morning. >> reporter: hi, martha, i spoke to coalition officials who say the reason qaddafi's compound was struck by those two british missiles, fired from a sub in the mediterranean, was essentially because it was being used as a communications node, a command and control center, so, for the libyan officials to say it was simply an administrative building is not what coalition officials are saying, they say they are not targeting qaddafi directly and there are now 11 u.s. ships in the mediterranean, and part of a 25-ship coalition

and there is a french aircraft carrier, the charles de gaulle on its way from france, on its way to the mediterranean, and, the u.s. is anxious to hand over control to the french or british in the coming days, take a listen to robert gates: >> and then we expect in a matter of days, to be able to turn over the primary responsibility to others. we will continue to support the coalition, we are a member of the coalition and we'll have a military role in the coalition but we will not have the preeminent role. >> reporter: it is important that for the arab league, members who want to be part of this, it not be nato-led but are trying to transition to french and british control. martha? martha: jennifer, we want to bring you in on this as well. there is breaking news out of japan. that has to do with radiation affecting u.s. operations in that region. back to jennifer now, to tell us about two of our ships there, and how they are being affected, jennifer? >> reporter: we know radiation levels are rising in japan out

of an abundance of caution i have spoken to u.s. officials, and they can confirm the uss george washington carrier group, the aircraft carrier and the uss lessen are pulling out of the port, and i can read a statement, it says "to ensure a state of readiness in the long term for the defense of japan" and out of the rising radiation levels, the uss washington and uss lessen are pulling away from japan. martha: jennifer griffin at the pentagon. bill: the pressure is mounting for president obama from the right and left and republicans and democrats critical of the decision and others, casting support. what does karl rove think? a man who knows what it is like to be under fire for making tough decision, we'll talk to him, after the break. martha: and if you have a question, send it to me with your tweet and a family swept

out to sea as a powerful storm dragged their tiny ship into the open waters, the dramatic coast guard rescue with a baby on board. bill: martha, you mentioned with jennifer, there is smoke rising again from one of japan's crippled nuclear reactors and perhaps, two of them today. and now, troubling discoveries in the food and water supply. back on that, after this. >>... contaminated and vegetables and beef come out i may not drink tap water. today i'm scared of the rain, nervous about whether i'll be okay? i get wet. i can't get rid of these weeds, or these nasal allergies.

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with the advanced filtration system of brita. bill: the u.n. security council called a meeting for this afternoon at 3:00. right now, it is described as a closed-door meeting and apparently a letter has been written delivered to the russians. the letter comes from either the libyan delegation to the u.n., or comes from muammar qaddafi himself. we don't know which -- what it is, the former or the latter,

but 3:00 this afternoon. u.n. security council will get together here in new york city and we'll cover that for you, this afternoon. 10:13. >> president barack obama: going forward we will continue to send a clear message. the violence must stop. muammar qaddafi has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave. martha: he must leave, the words three weeks ago from president obama but the mission looks a lot different today. as missiles lay waste to muammar qaddafi's compound, joint chiefs chairman mike mullen saying we are not specifically going after qaddafi, and, already the political fallout is mounting for president obama. republicans and democrats offering luke warm support of his decision to strike, a lot of mixed messages out there from both sides, really, many saying we could have gotten rid of him with bold action weeks ago and that remains to seen, you cannot remind and go back, we don't know. karl rove joins me, former

senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush and now a fox news contributor. karl, good morning to you. good to have you with us. >> good morning. martha: your take on what we saw play out over the weekend? >> well, the united states and allies have taken tough action, contrary to what secretary gates said on the first of march, where he sort of rung his hands over how difficult it to be to impose a no-fly zone it was done quickly and with no loss of life on the allied side. but, there is confusion. on february 26th, president obama said qaddafi must go and saturday he said the mission is well-defined which is to protect civilians and in the international affairs, if you say somebody -- a bad guy ought to go, qaddafi ought to go, then he had better go or, at the end of the day the united states and the west will be weakened by his remaining in power and we'll have consequences to pay if he does. i mean, he's a -- showed himself

to be an irresponsible actor on the world scene, downed a u.s. civilian aircraft over lockerbie scotland, attacked u.s. military personnel in berlin, he is willing to underwrite and carry out acts of terrorism and, if the president said he has to go, then he'd better make certain he goes. martha: you point out the gravest concerns for americans in what you said about that and i'm curious what you think president bush would have done, had things played out as they are now? what would he have done. >> things never play out exactly the same way. i suggested maybe things would have been different right from the get-go and one of the problems is the impression on the world community, is that the president is weak and we saw it play out, even in the last several weeks, on the 26th of february, and the president says, qaddafi must go and takes no steps to make him go, in fact on the third of march, gates goes before congress and says, no-fly zone, difficult to impose and, these kinds of signals encourage qaddafi to do what he did on the 9th and 10th of march

which is launch and all-out offensive against the democratic rebels in the east of the country and it was that action, which finally pushed the world community under the leadership primarily of france and britain and the europeans, into getting a no-fly zone resolution from the u.n. and enforcing it. martha: you talk about your opinion, that he looks weak on the world stage and that that may be why it took place and i want your thoughts on the image that is put out there now, because clin is front and center, throughout the weekend speaking with the leaders involved in the situation and you juxtapose that against the image of the president on the trip in brazil, with his family. and also what about the notion that hillary clinton encouraged the president to make the move? >> well, i'm not surprised a secretary of state or secretary of defense would have a view different from the white house and wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the day they were able to convince the white house to do something, which is apparently what happened in this instance, secretary clinton had a view that action needed to be taken and we needed to work with

our allies and take concrete steps to remove qaddafi from power and constrain his attacks on the small "d" democrats in the east of the country and god bless her for doing that. that is what we need strong members of the cabinet sometimes to come into a reluctant white house to do the right thing and the optic of the president being in en sense -- i don't want to disparage, chile and el salvador as being unimportant countries to our south, but the president on a sight-seeing tour is not good optics and the people in the white house communications department, are probably grumbling about the luck of the white house in drawing a schedule for this time, and having this kind of a back drop. martha: much was said in the bush presidency about the bush doctrine, and, you know, president obama spoke over the weekend, about the light of freedom and how important that is in the world which i thought was an interesting thing to talk about in brazil, what about

bahrain and yemen where people are also being killed in streets there? what do we do in those situations? >> well, again, i hate to say we have to roll back to the beginning but when the president as a candidate in 2008 dismissed the democracy agenda, the only people listening were not just american voters. when he came into office and then, he and secretary clinton and other, again, dismissed the importance of the united states, standing as a force for democracy and, we in essence put ourselves on the wrong side of history and as a result, our hand is weakened in dealing with these situation and we spent two years where we were putting constant pressure on the ought congratulations in the middle east to provide a greater sphere for democratic expression that would have relieved the pressure and see-saw that in egypt and worked hard to get the egyptians to agree to allow a real opposition candidate in the last presidential election and that got washed away when the administration refused to bring the same pressure to bear on the parliamentary elections and now we're finding ourselves in a

place -- our policies are inco herniate and theoretically we're in favor of democracy and have done nothing to build it and, aren't clear how much -- yes, a tricky situation and very difficult part of the world. martha: karl, great to get your in sight on these huge events that are unfolding right now in the world, thank you so much, good to see you, karl. >> you bet. bill: look at the markets. thank you, karl. 1999, to the up side. who would have thought that on a day like today, you are watching the news all weekend long and bombs dropping throughout libya and we're 198. t-mobile and at&t are about to do a $39 billion merger. martha: these kinds of deals cooking a long time and we're happy about that and in the meantime, serious events in japan that's fear of radiation forces u.s. naval ships away from japan's coast right now. back in a moment with more.

martha: wall street has had a good day but there is news that is not pretty and it has to do with existing home sales, hitting the lowest levels in nine years, this is the february number, down 9.6% over the january number and of course you have a lot of really bad weather in february, which may have bearing on the number but, overall, very weak, nowhere near the 6 million homes that you need to sell to represent a healthy market, at 4.88 million, the existing homes number, not a good picture. bill: let's gets it going, huh? so now the japanese are concerned the nuclear fallout will ruin thousands of acres of land at a minimum. trace amount of radiation, have been found in some raw foods and the water supply. there are trace amounts, again, but, looking down the road, wondering what it means for the country's ability to feed itself and william lajeunesse is watching that live in our west coast newsroom.

what have you found out about this? >> bill, it probably means fear and higher price force japanese consumers because, japan will have to import more food, and you know, after chernobyl radiation contaminated 3 million acres of farmland and thousands died from drinking milk from cows who were grazing on contaminated soil and japan is not chernobyl. however, officials there already admit their food chain, too, is contaminated. with harmful levels of radiation found up to 90 miles away. over the weekend, japan closed 19 dairy farms in the fukushima province after finding milk with 6 times the legal level of radiation and spinach fields had levels 7 times too high. >> it will be a long time before you are able to either eat animals raised in that area or plants. >> you have to make sure that if there is a -- that part of the food supply doesn't reach consumers.

that is the number one objective. >> another concern, cattle and fish, especially, exports of high-grade kobe beef and sushi and radiation is also already affecting other leafy vegetables. some water supplies, and rice fields. >> we won't know i think for some time the -- just today there was an upgrade in the level of severity of the incident. and, we won't know until there are measurements taken on terrestrial environments, grasses, plant materials and other sorts and also in coasting environments, how those materials, radioactive materials are working their way into the food chain. >> reporter: japan's food supply essential was hit twice, once by the tsunami that wiped out farms and fish eries and now iodine ad cesium, in the fooded. >> we are back to tokyo in a metro of moments, too, with

developments from l.a., william lajeunesse. martha: and he was in jail, five months in earthquake ravaged haiti and not a single charge against him. >> i am an american citizen, in haitian jail since october 13th of last year. and going on five months now, and, i have yet to have been given any formal charges. martha: what a journey, we were the first to bring you the story, today he tells his story here in "america's newsroom." bill: a story he has, too. libya is not the only nation in the middle east where citizens are standing up. in a moment, yemen, tunisia, bahrain seeing similar demonstrations. what happens next there and also, what happens in libya. where it is almost night fall on day three in tripoli. ?c [ bob ] i'd love to build bird houses for the rest of my life.

so i've got to take care of my heart. for me cheerios is a good place to start. [ male anuncer ] to keep doing what you love, take re of your heart with cheerios. the whole grain oats can help lower cholesterol. love your heart so yo can do what you love. bill: we have breaking news, the latest on libya, there is an air embargo in place over libya, in the meantime in new york, united nations set to meet at 3:00 this afternoon, on a lot of activity at the moment, but at 3:00, the russians apparently have a letter from the libyans. we're not sure it's most march gadhafi or from the lib -- mommar gadhafi or from the liberation. we are two days of air strikes, now moving to day

three, we are told by nato forces the no fly zone is in effect, that would include the area here on the map, and everything north of that, in yellow. this was a quick operation, apparently some of the fixed locations, the united states and allies and britain and france have known about the locations for the past 20 years. here's tripoli, the capitol city. you'll hear about misrata, and also the town of surt, gadhafi's home town. benghazi is the location where the rebels are today, and you can -- and you can make the case based on the s -- on the maps we've looked at in the far northeastern section of the country is where the rebels can operate, where they have control, the rest appears to be -- even though there's a no fly zone in effect, appears to be under the control of mommar gadhafi. welcome back, dan, good morning to you. general tom mcinerny, fox

news military analyst, he was on our program one hour ago and he says we've been snookered by the french, snookered by hillary clinton and barack obama will pay the price for this. what's your deal on that? >> i'm not sure what he means by snookered. can a no fly zone accomplish gadhafi stepping down and preventing the human catastrophe from would probably result with him not stepping down, consolidating the power by blood shed and crackdown and virtually by announcing a no fly zone and putting american force and european military force behind that decision, will that do something we haven't seen yet, which is bring over a cohesive libyan military unit to defect from gadhafi and his regime and come to the side, will senior military officers from the army come to the rebel side. if you start to have that momentum come into effect you may have a scenario

where gadhafi either steps down militarily or is forced to by his own people. bill: but there's no doubt that this is complicated. and far more complicated than it would have been had we done it three weeks ago. it doesn't mean though it can't be successful. bill: you raise an interesting query and that is this: if you get gadhafi loyalists to turn, you have a scenario where they take libyans and usher them into power. if that doesn't happen, you have to arm the rebel forces because they will still be fighting against mommar gadhafi's military, right? >> absolutely. bill: and who arms the rebels? >> nato is going to have to do it, the united states is going to have to do it and it's not just arming the rebels, it's training the rebels. right now it's a rag tag force fight be the lebel -- rebels. if you look at the army there's no fewer than 15 men fighting each side at any given moment. it's a rag tag militia. we'll have to have people on

the ground coordinating with our air defenses, so our air force, air operations aren't hitting the rebels rather than the libyan army. it's complicated. bill: you've been inside of the decision making meetings. have they thought about it, gamed about? >> i have two things: one, i don't think anyone is more resistent to military action in these situations than barack obama. no one in a military years -- in a million years thought in his third year into his presidency he'd be launching a third war in that part of the world and no, sir -- this is not a war inherited from bush, this is a war he's initiating. anyone in resistance to this, it is him. point two , the case for military action, in terms of evaluating the costs, are always going to be more clear-cut, more cut and dry, than the costs that one tries to forecast for inaction, right? in the case -- evaluating costs for inaction are inherently speculative and inherently subjective. that's the challenge in all these situations.

bill: that is the challenge because you're trying to figure out will there be a slaughter or not, if gadhafi moves to benghazi does he wipe out civilians, it's the only take on 50 rebel fighters in pickup trucks. that's what we were told would havment so you're trying to balance this and figure it out. the other thing we've been told is that the united states will hand off this, quote unquote, war to our nato allies, within a short period of time. is that days? is that weeks? do you believe that's possible? >> i'm skeptical of that. for the following reasons: look, this military intervention would not have happened without the united states. it's wonderful that sarkozy is leading the charge, terrific that cameron is on board, important that the arab league is on board but we wouldn't have gotten the u.n. security council resolution if not for the united states. only the u.s. has the capacity to do the complex, coordinated operations you're seeing over the last 48 hours, launching tom hawk -- tomahawk missiles from

submarines, coordinating the air defenses, the complicated communications between the ground, the air, the sea. it's complicated stuff. the u.s. is going to be playing a central role until this ends. bill: if we go back, you wonder whether or not they have the ability to coordinate. it's been a massive scale the past few days. dan, thank you, we'll be in touch, okay? >> thank you. bill: people are writing in, writing to figure out who the rebels are. martha: when you ask the question, training rebels, you're in a whole different ballgame in that accident scenao scenario. in the meantime there's a group of libyans lowly to gadhafi, blocking the task of ban ki-moon today. take a look. >> [chanting] >> that was the scene, the u.n. leader in egypt for talks with the arab league, trying to hold that together when dozens of protestors converged on his security detail, the demonstrators

shouted and waved messages. they are angry the u.s. approved the resolution last week about that, approving the military strikes underway right now. this is something completely different for a moment, shall we? want a vacation in the good old usa? if you're coming into the country it may cost you not just for a hotel. until now visitors from canada or mexico and some other countries could get into the country free of charge. maybe that's not so anymore, though, folks. a new federal budget proposes 5.50, it will cost you, to cross over the border to come into the united states for a vacation and molly line has more for us on that before you go on any trips. she is from boston, massachusetts. >> that's right, the 5.50 fee would net millions for the coffers and go towards security in airports and airports across the nation but many neighbors particularly from the north are not happy about this and the prime minister of sawnd, steven harper, recently said

we want to take sure travel is easier, not more difficult. citizens from new mexico -- from mexico and the carribean would be paying the fee from which they've long been exempt from. other countries have been paying this all along: it's the department of homeland security calling for the change and analysts predict the increase in collections could bring in up to $110 million. in a statement released by homeland security, assistant press secretary adam kecher, said the current exemption means the fees collected from passengers entering from all other countries and appropriate -- and appropriated tax dollars are subsidizing the passage from the carribean and mexico. the exemption would bring parity from sea and air passengers entering the united states. the canadian officials say they think this is a bad idea and in this fragile economy now is not the time to raise fees or taxes on canadians. martha. martha: we'll see if it has an impact on whether people come. i guess that's the bottom line. thank you very much, molly

line joining us from boston. bill: 5.50 sounds familiar, doesn't it? the amount it costs to drive into manhattan through the tunnel! martha: now it's $8. bill: that's the bridge! every time that arm goes up, it's 5.50. in a moment here we're going to get back to japan. there are developments today, radiation fears, you can imagine running rampant across that country. also in parts of the u.s. what is the real danger? as smoke starts to billow from one of those crippled reactors. we'll talk to an expert about that in a moment. martha: did you miss part of "america's newsroom". no, that wouldn't happen, right? no worries, we're recording it for you. foxnews.com, you can watch the replay online, every single minute you missed. you check it all out, you can't miss a minute! check it out. bill: we have at least four viewers! martha: exactly!

jon: i'm jon scott, we are bursting at the seems with news, air strikes on libya as the u.s. gets involved in another theater of war. also praising -- tracing developments in syria, bahrain and israel, that part of the world in the midst of an intensive upheelafter. in japan, emergency workers have had to stop work as smoke pours from the new reactors, and word that it's spreading in the water and food supplies. at home, raiseing food and fuel prices. we'll have it all. bill: see you in 16 minutes. we're getting word that minnesota's republican governor tim palenty will announce today, fox news confirming he'll form a presidential exploratory committee. you know what that means. martha: gets money, right? bill: that will clear the way for planning to raise money and hiring campaign

stuff. he served as governor for two terms, he's been traveling in ohio and new hampshire, obviously for good reason. it's coming up at 3:00. martha: getting the ball rolling. we'll see what happens. in the meantime, going back to japan, and this huge story, as john was -- as jon was talking about, smoke is billowing up from at least two, according to reports that we got from david piper earlier, of japan's nuclear reactors, once again, that forced responders away from the fukushima facility, it is coming, we believe, from this pool of spent fuel rods that sits around the main reactor area in the middle. if the water levels drop too low inside of reactor number three, a flood of radiation could be potentially released into the environment. radiation already being detected in several sources of food and water which was very frightening to hear over the course of this weekend and you heard that woman, sitting there with the umbrella, saying she was afraid the rain had radiation in it as well. very scary times. we bring in paul carol to

talk about this, program director for the plow shares fund, he's worked with the department of energy and epa on nuclear issues. paul, good to have you. >> good morning, you have for having -- thank you for having me. martha: troubling signs this morning as white smoke, we're told, comes from one and potentially two, it sounds like, of these reactors. what does that tell you? >> we t. doesn't tell us a lot. we need to really understand, is it smoke, is it steam, but obviously, it's not a good thing. it's not a good sign. but it's another reminder that this story is not nearly over yet. martha: you know, there were reports from the iaea saying that there's no doubt that japan will effectively overcome this crisis. do you think that's true? >> well, i think in human history, we've always met the challenges, cry sees like these catastrophic events but i think he's trying to assure his

population and be inspirational and be a leader, which is tehrik, but we still have three reactors that are damaged and to what extent we don't know, we have two and perhaps three spent rod fuel pools that are known to be comp miets dollars -- compromised as well so, i think the japanese workers, they are playing atomic wack a ball, they seem to accomplish one problem and another pops up. martha: the latest thing they were trying to do was to hook all power source so they could get the coolants moving through it again and they're having trouble doing that. last week, we reported, according to the sources on the scene, they had 48 hours before they would see actual meltdown, not the partial meltdown we're hearing about. what does the time frame look like to you snow. >> it's important to understand what the -- important to understand what the word meltdown means. when people say or hear meltdown, they think of a chernobyl-like absolute

catastrophe, explosion, but you have to be specific about meltdown. some of the fuel rods in the reactors we know have already melted to this extent. to what extent we don't know. so the longer that they're able to keep those temperatures down, the better. however, as you said, today, we saw more smoke. what does that mean? does that mean steam released, does that mean a fire? this situation continues to be extremely dangerous, and continues to bear watching. they need help. martha: i want to say one more quick thing before we go because david piper reported earlier that one of the recan'tors that we were seeing this smoke or steam coming from has a plutonium element to it and there was a consideration of intentionally releasing steam from that to alleviate some of the pressure in that one. your thoughts on that. >> well, it's true, we understand that one of the reactorors has moxed fuel, mixed oxide, so it has a blend of pru tonium and uranium and that increases the possible of a risk if

there's a release. martha: paul, thank you very much. it's a really tough situation borne out, the bravery and courageous acts of the people on that scene trying to fix it do not go unnoticed and unrecognized. pairl carroll, thank you very much, good to have you here this morning. >> thank you. bill: hearing about new air strikes targeting qaddafi's compound in libya, we are live on the ground for the latest there. also, you will hear this : >> [inaudible] bill: five months behind bars in haiti, not a single charge for this american. so where is this american missionary today? you'll find out, next.

martha: this is a quick update on the u.s.s. george washington, which we reported to you had pulled away from the yokosicca port, it fuld out indicating there was an urgency of the removal of ships due to fears about radiation in that port. more thoon to come. -- more on that to come. >> i've been here going on five months. bill: that is the american daniel pye in haiti for five months without a single charge. we first brought you the story two weeks ago, he's 29, a christian pastor, running an orphanage with his wife in haiti and has

been for years. days after we talked to his wife, leanne, who's by the way, nine months pregnant, live here on "america's newsroom", danny pye was released from jail, in his first television interview from then, he's live from sarasota, florida with one of his girls, brianne. good morning to you, how you doing? >> doing very well, thank you very much. bill: i can't imagine what you went through and i'm sure you're elated to be hole and reunited with your family. they made an effort to talk to the judge in haiti, all of that to no avail. why were they holding you after -- why were they holding you after you were doing good work in that country? >> there's no official charges. there's lots of talk and rumors of why their reasons were, but i was arrested actually two different times and held for five months in the jail, with the charges of contempt of court and false documents, were the official charges, but they never came into -- i was

never charged, but those were the accusations. bill: what did the judge come around to, why release you? >> he was actually transferred, and ended up being demoted but his last act of service was releasing me for several different reasons. he had a lot of pressure from his boss, as well as had a lot of attempts from our kids and a lot of people contacting him and pretty much putting in moo toe he -- for my release. bill: what are you wearing, looks like in signatures or autographs? >> my kids made this for me for christmas. it's their signatures and they wrote a message, saying they're loving me, praying for me, and so it's a shirt that was sent to me on christmas day by them. they all wrote their names and a small message to me. bill: the prayers worked! how is your wife doing, has she given birth? >> she's doing great. she did. she gave birth to our son yesterday afternoon, joseph

daniel, healthy, beautiful baby boy, yesterday afternoon. bill: that's great. so there's a sibling to play with. tell ryan hello, snok and best of you, danny, and give our best to leanne, congratulations, welcome home, it's nice to see you healthy. >> thanks. thank you very much. martha: welcome home indeed. coming up, a fox news alert, we are closely monitoring this situation, the latest in japan, where smoke is rising from two of those damaged reactors. how much time do they have left? some plant workers now in a scramble, trying to get out as fast as they can. a live report from the ground there at the hop of the hour. plus this: >> secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, two weeks ago, were very clear, they did not want any involvement with this. so i think the french, president sarkozy, has snookered hillary, who snookered the president.

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